The A Team of Sarah Dufour-Jackson, Holly Weedall, Chloe Dooley and Kate Ward finished a superb 2nd behind Herne Hill but ahead of serial National medallists such as Thames Valley Harriers, Aldershot, Leeds City and Belgrave etc to clinch silver medals. In a close race Herne Hill beat us by just 24 seconds with TVH a further 6 secs behind and Aldershot just 2 seconds further back!
This is only the 2nd time a club from Cheshire has won a medal at the national senior road relays (men or ladies) since they have been hosted at Sutton Park and online records start in 1990 – the only other time was our own VRAC ladies bronze medal in 2015 so yesterday’s performance was the best by a Cheshire club ever !! Meanwhile Kate’s run to move us up from 6th to 2nd on last leg was the equal 2nd fastest leg of the day and the fastest time ever by a VRAC runner (it could be a Cheshire record too as we can’t see anyone from the county having run quicker).
The young B team of Ellie Bushill, Grace Roberts and Darcey Murphy plus Hollie Carrington also performed superbly to finish 25th overall and 4th B team which augurs well for the future whilst we even fielded a complete C team of Anna Begbie, Clara Pettitt, Meg White and Carolyn Dooley who finished in an excellent 54th place.
It was also great to field 2 full mens teams, both having qualified via the Northern relays 2 weeks earlier. The team was equally young, with many making their senior debuts at Sutton Park however they acquitted themselves admirably to finish 45th and 61st (1st and 3rd Cheshire Teams).
The mixture of youngsters and more mature runners across all teams, blending seamlessly in racing as they do in training is a hallmark of the club and a key reason for our our historic, current and (hopefully!) future success.
See the Facebook post for full results from the day: https://www.facebook.com/share/M4LQ3CGEF6hXmySJ/?mibextid=WC7FNe
